Tuesday, September 10, 7:00 P.M.
Members $100, guests $125

Guillermo Pernot is proud to say that his culinary inspiration comes from the heart. He draws from his Argentine upbringing, of course, but explores the rest of Latin America and Asia, too. Much of this self-taught chef's cooking is driven by gut instinct. You might just say he cooks with passion.

At ¡Pasión!, the Philadelphia showcase Pernot opened in late 1998, his colorful, adventurous, sensual food has garnered a slew of admirers. In 1999, Philadelphia Magazine named the place Best New Restaurant, and Craig LaBan of the Philadelphia Inquirer gave it a glowing review. Pernot was well known to Philadelphia diners before his newest restaurant adventure: he'd turned heads at the city's Vega Grill, so much so that Food & Wine had named him among their Best New Chefs. This year we added our own two pesos, handing Pernot a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic.

Words like "thrilling," "dazzling," and "exciting" come up repeatedly when Pernot is the subject. Writing in The New York Times, R. W. Apple, Jr. called his Nuevo Latino cooking "the most exciting in Philadelphia." Local critic Maxine Keyser of City Paper agreed practically to the letter, writing, "This is the most exciting restaurant to come to Philadelphia in some time." And though all of Pernot's food is delicious, it's his ceviches that truly explode with flavor. As LaBan put it, "You can fit one of Guillermo Pernot's ceviches into the hollow of a coconut shell, but the ideas and sensations you'll discover inside are bigger than many chefs will achieve in an entire meal."

Pernot is so taken with ceviches, in fact, that he has devoted a whole book to them. ¡Ceviche! (Running Press) ranges from the traditional—Raw Fish Ceviche—to the flamboyant—Oyster Ceviche with Roasted Banana-Tamarindo Sauce. Wrote John DeMers in the Houston Chronicle, "Raw fish never had it so good!" For good measure, Pernot throws in several recipes for exuberant salsas, salads, and Latin-American-inspired cocktails, too. Earlier this year, our judges concurred, awarded ¡Ceviche! a cookbook award in the category of Single Subject, making Pernot a 2002 two-time Beard Foundation medalist.